Method and apparatus for establishing usage rights for digital content to be created in the future

ABSTRACT

Usage rights for a digital work are established prior to creation of the corresponding content. The rights can be associated with the content after the content is created. A content creation, such as a video recorder or a still camera, device can store labels of the rights and can associate usage rights with content in real time as the content is created.

RELATED APPLICATION DATA

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/785,479, filed Mar. 5, 2013, which is a continuation of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 12/768,238, filed Apr. 27, 2010, now U.S. Pat. No.8,412,644, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/052,209, filed Feb. 8, 2005, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,725,401, which is acontinuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/867,747,filed May 31, 2001, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,876,984, the disclosures ofwhich are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates generally to assignment of usage rights fordigital works. In particular, this invention relates to establishingusage rights for before the content is created. Content that has not yetbeen created can be, for example, a live event (such as a sports event)that has not yet happened. It can also be, for example, a movie that hasnot yet been filmed or a book that has not yet been written. Moreover,the content in question could be, for example, a movie created manyyears ago. In that example this invention would pertain to the versionof that movie in digital form, prepared and packaged for distribution ina manner described in this invention. Similarly, a two thousand year oldbook prepared as a new digital work can be content to be created in thefuture equally as with the case of the book that has not yet beenwritten. Further, an item of content already in digital form can becontent that has not been created where a new digital instantiation ofthe content is created.

One of the most important issues impeding the widespread distribution ofdigital works via electronic means, and the Internet in particular, isthe current lack of protection of intellectual property rights ofcontent owners during the distribution and the usage of the digitalcontent. Efforts to resolve these issues have been termed “IntellectualProperty Rights Management” (“IPRM”), “Digital Property RightsManagement” (“DPRM”), “Intellectual Property Management” (“IPM”),“Rights Management” (“RM”), and “Electronic Copyright Management”(“ECM”), collectively referred to as “Digital Rights Management” (“DRM”)herein.

Due to the expansion of the Internet in the recent years, and the issuesrelating to privacy, authentication, authorization, accounting, paymentand financial clearing, rights specification, rights verification,rights enforcement, document protection, and collection of licensingfees DRM has become even more important. Because the Internet is such awidely used network whereby many computer users communicate and tradeideas and information, the freedom at which electronically publishedworks are reproduced and distributed is widespread and commonplace.

Two basic types DRM of schemes have been employed to attempt to solvethe document protection problem: secure containers and trusted systems.A “secure container” (or simply an encrypted document) offers a way tokeep document contents encrypted until a set of authorization conditionsare met and some copyright terms are honored (e.g., payment for use).After the various conditions and terms are verified with the documentprovider, the document is released to the user in clear form. Commercialproducts such as IBM's CRYPTOLOPES™ and InterTrust's DIGIBOXES™ fallinto this category. Clearly, the secure container approach provides asolution to protecting the document during delivery over insecurechannels, but does not provide any mechanism to prevent legitimate usersfrom obtaining the clear document and then using and redistributing itin violation of content owners' intellectual property.

Cryptographic mechanisms are typically used to encrypt (or “encipher”)documents that are then distributed and stored publicly, and ultimatelyprivately deciphered by authorized users. This provides a basic form ofprotection during document delivery from a document distributor to anintended user over a public network, as well as during document storageon an insecure medium.

In the “trusted system” approach, the entire system is responsible forpreventing unauthorized use and distribution of the document. Building atrusted system usually entails introducing new hardware such as a secureprocessor, secure storage and secure rendering devices. This alsorequires that all software applications that run on trusted systems becertified to be trusted. While building tamper-proof trusted systems isa real challenge to existing technologies, current market trends suggestthat open and untrusted systems such as PC and workstations usingbrowsers to access the Web, will be the dominant systems used to accessdigital works. In this sense, existing computing environments such asPCs and workstations equipped with popular operating systems (e.g.,Windows™, Linux™, and UNIX) and rendering applications such as browsersare not trusted systems and cannot be made trusted without significantlyaltering their architectures. Of course, alteration of the architecturedefeats a primary purpose of the Web, i.e. flexibility andcompatibility.

U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,530,235, 5,634,012, 5,715,403, 5,638,443, and 5,629,980introduced many basic concept of DRM. All of these patents are herebyincorporated herein by reference in their entirety. U.S. Pat. No.5,634,012 discloses a system for controlling the distribution of digitaldocuments. Each rendering device has a repository associated therewith.A predetermined set of usage transaction steps define a protocol used bythe repositories for carrying out usage rights associated with adocument. Usage rights are encapsulated with the content or otherwiseassociated with the digital work to travel with the content. The usagerights can permit various types of use such as, viewing only, use once,distribution, and the like. Rights can be granted based on payment orother conditions.

In conventional DRM techniques, a content owner, or other authorizedparty, specifies the rights after the content has been created andprotects, e.g. encrypts, the content at the same time. A private key isused to encrypt the content, and a label is generated which specifiesthe usage rights. The rights label and the protected content are thenassociated and stored. A license to the content can later be generatedfor a user to permit the user to use or access the content. The licenseincludes a private key which has been encrypted using a public key inknown manner.

To access the content, the private key can be used to decrypt theencrypted public key, allowing the user to decrypt the content. Thistechnique works well if the content is available at the time of therights specification. However, this technique breaks-down if one wantsto specify rights for content and issue a license for the content beforethe content is available. For example, a distributor of streaming videoto a live future event, or of photographs to a future event, may want tobegin selling licenses to the content prior to the event. ConventionalDRM systems fall short of presenting processes for improving thesecurity, user interface, organization, structure, and accuracy of theDRM system, particularly for those works that are not yet in existence.

SUMMARY

An object of the invention is to obviate the problems noted above in theprior technology and permit usage rights to be assigned to a work priorto creation of the work.

A first aspect of the invention is a method for creating a digital workhaving content and usage rights related to the content. The methodcomprises generating a label associated with content of a digital workbefore the content is created, associating the label with the contentand securing the content and the label.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

Various embodiments of this invention will be described in detail, withreference to the following figures, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a flowchart of a method for providing usage rights for digitalcontent before creation of the content in accordance with the anembodiment of the invention; and

FIG. 2 is a content creation device for providing usage rights fordigital content to be created in the future in accordance with anembodiment of the invention.

FIG. 3 illustrates the relationship between usage rights, a label andfuture digital content in accordance with an embodiment for thisinvention.

FIG. 4 is a black diagram of a service which selects appropriateprotected digital content based on the client's environment inaccordance with an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a method for providing usage rights for digitalcontent to be created in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The phrase “digital work” as used herein refers to any type of elementhaving content in computed readable form. “Content” as used hereinrefers to the viewable or otherwise usable portion of a digital work.The phrase “usage rights” refers to permissions, in the form of a mannerof use, granted to a user of an existing digital work or a digital workto be created in the future with respect to use, access, distribution,and the like of the content of the work. In addition, usage rights mayhave one or more conditions which must be satisfied before thepermissions may be exercised.

FIG. 1 illustrates an embodiment of a method for providing usage rightsfor content of a digital work before the content is created. For eachstep in this illustration, it is possible that the content, license,label, keys or other data used may be encrypted for added security. Instep 100 a label specifying usage rights, to be associated with digitalcontent that is not yet created, is generated. The usage rights labelcan include usage rights, such as the right to print, copy, alter, editor view the digital work or any other right, permission, or restriction,such as those contained in the XrML™ language or other usage rightsgrammar. Alternatively, the usage rights label may include merely anidentification of the work and other descriptive data and the specificgranted usage rights can be contained in the license discussed below. Inthe case of using the XrML™ language, the label can be an extensiblemarkup language (XML) document specifying the usage rights. In addition,the future content can have many different versions of usage rights andthus a label can be generated for each version. In step 110, a key, suchas a conventional public key, is generated in a known manner andassociated with the label.

In step 120, a user request for use of, i.e. a license to, the contentto be created is received. Keep in mind that the content itself need notbe in existence yet. For example, the content can be a video recordingor stream of a sporting event to occur in the future. In step 130, adistributor of the content, or another authorized party, issues alicense to the user. The license can include a private key correspondingto the public key generated in step 110 and may include usage rights orother descriptive data. Once, again, keep in mind that the contentitself need not be in existence yet. Accordingly, the distributor isable to sell a license to view the event prior to the event.

In step 140, the content is created. Of course, this step can beaccomplished by another party. However the content is created, thesalient point is that the content somehow comes into existence afterrights are assigned for it. The usage rights label can be encapsulatedwith or attached to the content whereby copies of the digital work willalso carry the usage rights label. Alternatively, the label can bestored separately from the content but be associated through flags,calls, or the like. Therefore, the term “associated” as used hereinrefers broadly to creating a correspondence between the content and thelabel so the label will be applied to the content. Once the usage rightslabel is associated with the content, the content can be secured usingthe key generated in step 110. The digital content can be securedthrough any form of encryption or other known technique. For examplepretty good privacy (PGP) encryption procedures can be used.

In step 160, the process determines whether there is a request foraccess to the secured digital content. If there are no requests, theprocess waits for a request. However, if there is a request for access,the process proceeds to step 170 where the usage rights associated withthe digital work and/or license are checked to determine whether all theconditions, such as payment, associated with the usage rights have beensatisfied. If all the conditions have been satisfied, the processproceeds to step 180 in which access to the content is granted, i.e.,the content is downloaded, streamed, or otherwise transferred to theuser. In step 190, the user's private key is used to decrypt the contentin a known manner.

The association of the usage rights with the content may occur in avariety of ways. For example, if the usage rights will be the same forthe entire content of a digital work, the usage rights can be attachedwhen the digital work is processed for deposit in a distribution serverof other device. However, if the content of the digital work has avariety of different usage rights for various components, the usagerights can be attached as the work is being created. Various authoringtools and/or digital work assembling tools can be utilized for providingan automated process of attaching the usage rights. Because each part ofa digital work can have its own usage rights, there can be instanceswhere the usage rights of a “part” will be different from its parent. Assuch, conflict rules can be established to dictate when and how a rightmay be exercised.

FIG. 2 illustrates a content creation device, a video recorder, inaccordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention. The contentcreation device 300 includes a controller 302, a LCD display 304, asmart-card reader 306, a memory 307, a keypad 308, a rights assignmentengine 310, eye/iris recognition sensors 312, a cable connection 313, ahandle 314, and symmetric finger print recognition sensors 316,318.Also, lens system 320 permits recording of video images. Controller 302and rights assignment engine 310 of the preferred embodiment areaccomplished through a microprocessor based device programmed in adesired manner.

While FIG. 2 shows the controller 302 and the rights assignment engine310 as separate units, the functions performed by these units may becombined in one processor or may be further divided among pluralprocessors such as digital signal processors and/or performed bydedicated hardware such as application specific integrated circuits(ASIC), e.g., hard-wired electronic or logic circuits or programmablelogic devices, or other hardware or software implementations.

The smart-card reader 306 can be used for reading cards insertedtherein. For example, a license, usage rights, or identification can beembedded in the card and communicated to the controller 302 and/or therights assignment engine 310. LCD display 304, the smart card reader306, keypad 308 and software interfaces constitute a user interface ofcreation server 300. The user interface permits a user to inputinformation such as identification data, and access requests andprovides feedback as to operation of creation device 300. The contentcreation device 300 of the preferred embodiment is a video recorder;however, it can be any type of recording device, for example, astill-image camera, an animation generator, or an audio recorder.

The rights assignment engine 310 can be accessed via the cableconnection 313. For example, a rights assignment computer (notillustrated), such as any computer running XrML™ and related tools, canbe coupled to the rights assignment engine 310 via cable connection 313to download a usage rights label or template, similar to the labeldescribed above, indicating usage rights for content to be created bythe content creation device 300 in the future. Any content created bythe content creation device 300 will automatically be associated withthe usage rights label or labels stored in rights assignment engine 310.Alternatively, the usage rights label can be composed using the userinterface of creation device 300. In either case, one or more labels areand corresponding keys generated and stored in rights assignment engine310 along with instructions indicating how the labels are to be assignedto content recorded by creation device. 300.

The instructions can cause the usage rights labels to be assigned in anymanner and can include any permissions and/or restrictions. For example,in the case of a video recorder, each part of the video sequence orframes can selectively be assigned different rights. This makes therights assignment process very flexible and dynamic and permits rightsassignment to be made in real time as content is created or prior tocreation.

The content creation device 300 can utilize a unique device ID, a user'ssmart card, encryption (e.g. PKI) technology, a PIN, or any biometricssystem to assign rights based on the identity of the user, the recordingdevice itself, the data on the smart card, or the like. For example,fingerprint recognition sensors 316, 318 or iris recognition sensor 312can be used for recognition or authentication of the user's identify topermit rights assignment engine 310 to use a corresponding set of rightsassociated with the user. For example, all content recorded by person Awill have one set of rights and all content recorded by person B willhave a different set of rights.

The content creation device 300 records content in a conventionalmanner. However, labels and keys generated in steps 100 and 110described above are stored and associated with content recorded bycontent recorder 300 during or soon after recording. Accordingly, steps140 and 150 described above are also accomplished by content creationdevice 300. For security purposes, a token or pre-paid card (or magneticcard and smart card, or any of its variations, such as memory-type orsynchronous communication card, ISO 7816-compliant card, EMV-type card)can be used for the storage of fees and micro-payments, or keeping trackof those fees with associated rights. Such cards can be read using thesmart card reader 306.

It can be seen that the invention permits usage rights for a work to becreated and associated with content prior to the creation of thecontent. The usage rights define how the future digital work may be usedand distributed. These pre-established usage rights become apart of thefuture digital work and controls the usage and distribution of thecontent of such work.

In the preferred embodiment, after the rights have been established fora future content, a private key associated with the future content isassigned and a rights label is generated. This private key, along withthe rights label, is stored. A user can purchase the content (present orfuture) after the label has been inserted into the main server or otherdevices. After the content is purchased, the content owner can get alicense for encryption which contains the public key encrypted by aprivate key. Alternatively, a single symmetric key can be used.

The label represented by step 100 in FIG. 1 may serve as a reference toanother work. The label in this case would serve as a placeholder forfuture content. The label may be an empty file or contain computerinterpretable or human interpretable data that may be used to laterassociate it with the future digital content. When it is created thelabel may include usage right information but it does not need to. Theusage rights information can be supplied later. When the usage rightsare generated, as represented by step 130 in FIG. 1, the contentreferred to by the usage rights would be the label, and need not be theactual digital content. The label could then be referenced to determinewhich digital content the user is requesting access to. The means ofassociating the label with the actual content may be done in a varietyof ways including the use of human-interpretable text, numericreferences, pointers, markup languages such as HTML and XML,programmable scripts or even SQL queries.

FIG. 3 illustrates this embodiment. In FIG. 3, license 220 containingusage rights is issued to a user. Since digital content 260 for thelicense does not yet exist, label 240 is created to act as a placeholderfor the future content. The label would contain or imply a relationshipbetween itself and digital content to be created in the future. Thisrelationship may be implied such as naming the label using a product IDor other reference that can later be associated with the digitalcontent, or it may be an actual reference such as human-interpretabletext containing the name of the future content or content within thelabel that can later be used to derive the actual digital content. Thelabel to which the license is bound is used in the appropriate manner todetermine the actual digital content with which the label is associated.The rights and any conditions specified in the usage rights would applyto the actual content, not the label that it represents. The stepsdiscussed above do not necessarily have to be performed in the ordershown in the figure. For example, the label can be created before orafter the license and before or after the content.

Usage rights associated with the future digital content may be specifiedwithin a license, the label or even the content itself. These usagerights apply to the digital content pointed to by the label, regardlessof where they are stored and the method used for storage.

FIG. 5 illustrates an embodiment of a method for providing usage rightsfor content of a digital work that is created dynamically at the timethe user requests it. The steps illustrated in FIG. 5 do not necessarilyhave to be performed in the order shown in the figure. For example thelabel can be created before or after the license and before or after thecontent. In step 500 a label representing digital content that is notyet created, is generated. The label can include usage rights, such asthe right to print, copy, alter, edit or view the digital work or anyother right, permission, condition or restriction, such as thosecontained in the ISO MPEG REL, XrML, ODRL, the Open Mobile Alliance RELor any other usage rights grammar. Alternatively, the usage rights labelmay include merely an identification of the work and other descriptivedata and the specific granted usage rights can be contained in thelicense discussed below. In the case of using the ISO MPEG REL forexample, the label can be an extensible markup language (XML) documentspecifying the usage rights. In addition, the future content can havemany different versions of usage rights and thus a label can begenerated for each version. In step 510, the label may be protected byusing known encryption techniques.

In step 520, a distributor of the content, or another authorized party,makes available a license to a user. The license can be protected usinga private key such as the one corresponding to the public key generatedin step 110 and may include usage rights or other descriptive data.Once, again, keep in mind that the content itself need not be inexistence yet. Accordingly, for example, a distributor is able to offera license to view an event prior to the event occurring.

In step 530, a user obtains a license to (i.e. receives the right touse) the content to be created. The user may request the license or mayreceive the license without requesting it. Keep in mind that the contentitself need not be in existence yet. For example, the content can be avideo recording or stream of a sporting event to occur in the future.

In step 540, the content is created. Of course, this step can beaccomplished by another party. However the content is created, thesalient point is that the content somehow comes into existence afterrights are assigned for it. In this embodiment, the content is createdin response to the request for content performed previously in step 530.After the content is created, the label is associated with the contentin step 550. The label can be encapsulated with or attached to thecontent whereby copies of the digital work will also carry the label.Alternatively, the label can be stored separately from the content butbe associated through flags, calls, or the like. Therefore, the term“associated” as used herein refers broadly to creating a correspondencebetween the content and the label so the label will be applied torepresent the content. Once the usage rights label is associated withthe content, the content may or may not be secured using the keygenerated in step 510. The digital content can be secured through anyform of encryption or other known technique. For example pretty goodprivacy (PGP) encryption procedures can be used.

In step 560 the usage rights associated with the digital work and/orlicense are checked to determine whether the use of the digital work ispermitted by the usage rights and if there are conditions to the use,all the conditions, such as payment, associated with the usage rightswhether the conditions have been satisfied. If the use attempted by theuser is permitted and all the conditions, if any, have been satisfied,the process proceeds to step 570 in which access to the content isgranted (e.g., the content is downloaded, streamed, or otherwisetransferred to the user or the user is permitted to render the contentor otherwise use the content in the permitted manner). In step 580, ifthe content was encrypted the user's private key is used to decrypt thecontent in a known manner.

The invention can be used in a subscription model (for example, formagazine or marketing reports) in which the future issues of the contenthave not been published, but the rights for those issues have alreadybeen assigned and stored. At an appropriate future time, the rights willbe associated with the corresponding content. For example, by sellingthe content of a future event on a web site before the actual event, thetraffic of the Web site can be drastically reduced and distributed overa longer period of time, making the requirements for the servers and theWeb site easier to satisfy and less expensive to operate. Note, however,that the Web site selling the rights or tickets, i.e. the license, mightbe different from the Web site providing the content later on.

The invention may also be used in a flexible subscription model such asidentifying multiple issues of a periodical. In this case, the labelmight contain human-readable text such as “Issues 34-56 of NewsweekOnline” with the usage rights to the content specified in a separatelicense. The label in this case could represent multiple digital workswith a single label.

Another possible use for this invention is the area of services. Someservices take an instruction and then generate content as a returnvalue. For example; a user may send a request to a service whichcontains some information about their operating system, platform orenvironment. The service could utilize this information to generate orselect content appropriate to the user from plural instances of contentand return both the content and usage rights that would allow the userto utilize the content. In other words, the service could generateprotected digital content customized to a user service 400 receiversenvironment, such as the user's identity preferences, or computersystem.

FIG. 4 illustrates this embodiment. Client request 402, consisting of aset of usage rights, along with information about the clientenvironment. The request or usage rights are bound to label which existswithin the service. When the service receives the request, it referencesthe indicated label, combined with the client environment information todetermine which content, Windows content 406 or Linux content 407 forexample, is best suited to the user. As in previous embodiments, theusage rights and label were created prior to the existence of thedigital content. Simply put, this embodiment allows the pre-sale andlicensing of protected digital content.

This invention may even be used to help manage limited distributionwhere digital content is regulated or limited in some fashion. Imagine acontent creator that wishes to restrict the number of copies aparticular distributor is capable to selling. Such a business modelmight be created by placing a unique identifier on each copy of thedigital content the creator gives to the distributor. This identifiermight be a unique serial number or simply a date & time stamp. Thedistributor is given only the number of individualized copies of thedigital content that they are authorized to sell each month. Once thequantity has been distributed, rather than turning away customers, thedistributor might choose to use a label to represent the content theywill receive the following month. This would allow them to better servetheir customers, continue distribution of the content while at the sametime honoring the content creator's desires by only distributing alimited amount each month.

Also, the invention allows a newspaper editor, for example, to send acamera crew to record content without worrying about the pictures beingcompromised in any way (for example, altered, edited, viewed byunauthorized personnel, or hidden and separately sold to anothernewspaper organization). In fact, the camera crew may have no rightswhatsoever in the content as soon as the content is recorded.

Alternatively the editor can set the rights in such a way that the first10 pictures, for example, will belong to the newspaper (work-related),and the next five pictures will belong to the cameraman (for personaluse). This example illustrates the flexibility, security, confidence,certainty, and multiple relationships that can be arranged betweenparties (the cameraman and the editor in this example).

All future content may be assigned a content ID prior to existence ofthe content. Given the content ID information and the license forencryption, the content can be encrypted after creation in a manner thatis available to be used by the users who have purchased the license.However, if the content ID information and the license for encryptionare not available, access to the content shall be denied.

Further, a predetermined symmetric key can be generated in advance ofcontent creation, and stored with the rights label. Afterwards, the samekey can be used to encrypt the content once it is created. However, asnoted above every user can receive a different key. In anotheralternative, the user can be given an authorization token, which theuser can exchange for the license later on.

The controller 302 can process the security parameters and the rightsmanagement steps. Lost-card verification, lost-card reports, card-usagereports, security alert reports, and tracking reports can be associatedor combined with the rights management reports, such as reports forrevoked rights, denied rights, renewed rights, usage patterns, andmicro-payments.

In the preferred embodiments, the label is a placeholder. the label neednot have to have specific content or usage rights. The label can be aplaceholder for both usage rights and content. Or for just one of thesetwo. For example, the label can be a file with a pointer (or empty dataportion) for three things: content, usage rights and an associationmeans. The association means can be supplied first. The other two piecesof information can be supplied subsequently in any order.Conventionally, content is created first and then rights are associatedwith the content. With the invention, an association of content torights can be created before the content is even created.

The invention may be readily implemented in software using object orobject-oriented software development environment that provides portablesource code that can be used on a variety of computer hardwareplatforms. For example the software can be written in the JAVA™ languageand run in a JAVA™ virtual machine. Alternatively, the disclosedoperations may be implemented partially or fully in a hardware usingstandard logic circuits or VLSI designs. The hardware can include anytype of general purpose computer, dedicated computer, or other devices.

The distribution, accounting, and other functions of the distributor andclearinghouse can be accomplished by any party on any device. Forexample, the content can be rendered on an eBook reader or PDA inresponse to entry of a code or insertion of a smartcard into a readerand accounting can be accomplished when the digital work or accountingdata is returned to a specific source. The division of tasks disclosedherein is only an example. Usage rights and or accounting data can beencapsulated with the digital work or can be stored separately. Code forrendering, decrypting, or otherwise permitting or limiting use of thecontent can be stored on any device or can be encapsulated with thedigital work. Any distribution arrangement can be used with theinvention and such arrangements can include any combination of devices,such as personal computers, servers, PDAs, and the like communicatingwith one another in any manner as is necessary to transfer the desiredinformation.

The invention has been described in connection with the aboveembodiments. However, it should be appreciated that many alternates,modifications and variations may be made to the embodiments of theinvention without departing from the scope of the invention as definedby the appended claims and legal equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method executed by one ormore computing devices for creating a digital work, the methodcomprising: before content is created, associating, by at least one ofthe one or more computing devices, a usage right with a labelrepresenting the content, the usage right corresponding to a permittedutilization of the content; selecting, by at least one of the one ormore computing devices, an instance of the content appropriate for auser environment; and after the content is created, associating, by atleast one of the one or more computing devices, the usage right with theselected instance of the content, thereby creating the digital work. 2.An apparatus for creating a digital work, the apparatus comprising: oneor more processors; and one or more memories operatively coupled to atleast one of the one or more processors and having instructions storedthereon that, when executed by at least one of the one or moreprocessors, cause at least one of the one or more processors to: beforecontent is created, associate a usage right with a label representingthe content, the usage right corresponding to a permitted utilization ofthe content; select an instance of the content appropriate for a userenvironment; and after the content is created, associate the usage rightwith the selected instance of the content, thereby creating the digitalwork.
 3. At least one non-transitory computer-readable medium storingcomputer-readable instructions that, when executed by one or morecomputing devices, cause at least one of the one or more computingdevices to: before content is created, associate a usage right with alabel representing the content, the usage right corresponding to apermitted utilization of the content; select an instance of the contentappropriate for a user environment; and after the content is created,associate the usage right with the selected instance of the content,thereby creating the digital work.